


The Fastest Knitter Alive

by awriterinthedark



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Crochet, Fluff, Gen, Knitting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 14:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10310744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awriterinthedark/pseuds/awriterinthedark
Summary: Barry Allen the fastest man...er knitter alive.A silly short fic in which Barry knits, Cisco crochets and everyone gets a lot of hats.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This has not been beta read so any mistakes are completely my own and if you spot any blunders please let me know and I will try to fix it!!

Barry walked into the lab one day and found Cisco hunched over the computers, his eyes glued to his lap and muttering softly under his breath.

"Frigging work with me here...What did I do do to you? Pain in my-oh ho ho no! Whoa, not again...I swear..."

"Um, Cisco? Everything okay in here?" Barry asked, making Cisco visibly jump a few inches into the air.

"Barry!! Is, um, is Caitlin with you?" Cisco asked, hunching further over his lap while his eyes flicked behind Barry, trying to spot his other friend.

"No, she's not here. Why?" Barry asked.

Cisco relaxed with a sigh and then held up what he had been attempting to hide, thin strands of pale blue yarn with a silver crochet hook attached to it glinted in the light.

"I'm working on her Christmas present, it's going to be shawl when I'm done." He muttered, staring at the mess of yarn in his hands. "But at the rate it's going it might not be done till July."

"You crochet?" Barry asked, somewhat excitedly, but Cisco didn't seem to catch his tone because he shoved his yarn and hook back into his lap and curled himself over it protectively.

"That's so cool!" Barry hastily tacked on.

Cisco froze for a split second before uncurling and narrowing his eyes at Barry.

"Really? You don't think it's weird or girly?" Cisco asked, his fingers rubbing the skein of yarn gently. From his reaction Barry guessed that Cisco had been teased for crocheting before. Barry fought a frown off his face. He'd been teased for knitting and he knew how much it sucked to be teased over it.

"No, man it's awesome! I know how to knit but I haven't tried crochet, is it hard?" Barry asked throwing himself into one of the chairs and eyeing the yarn in Cisco's lap. The shawl must have still been in the beginning stages because it looked more like a tangled mess then a shawl to Barry's eyes.

"Dude, you can knit? I tried it but quit, cause it was so complicated. Like, why do you need so may different kinds of needles? There's needles with points on both ends and needles with some weird wire and needles made out of different woods and metals and just what?? Crocheting is like, so, so, so much easier, in my humble opinion." Barry couldn't help but laugh at Cisco's exasperated expression.

"Yeah I knit. My mom taught me how. I know what you mean about the needles. There's so many different types of needles it can be kind of frustrating sometimes when I go to start a new project and find that I don't have the right size or type."

"So, do you have any knitting with you or something? Cause, I have to try and at least get a few rows done or else this thing is never going to get done in time for Christmas, and I imagine it would be kinda boring to sit there and watch me swear at a bunch of yarn." Cisco said turning back towards the pattern that he had laid out on the desk.

"I don't have any yarn with me. I haven't carried yarn around with me since college. I don't think I've knit anything since the accident." Barry mused aloud.

"Whoa, dude! That's messed up, I seriously don't think I could go even like a day without crocheting. Hey, I wonder if you use your speed while you knit if you could make a hat in like, seconds. Dude, you need to go grab some yarn! We seriously need to see how fast you can knit now!"

Barry's curiosity was peaked as well. He'd never thought of using his speed for knitting.  
“That actually sounds really interesting. I'll be back in a minute!” Barry called over his shoulder as he sped out the door. 

The trip to Joe's house took mere seconds Barry was running so fast. He slowed down a little when he got to his room and stated sorting through the clothes, shoes, bags and other detritus that had accumulated on the bottom of his closet in search of his yarn bag. When he found it he gently pulled out the last project he had been working on, a simple seed stitch scarf made with the softest and lightest pink yarn that the craft shop had to offer, on his favorite pair of bamboo needles. Barry stroked the yarn gently before putting it back into the bag, careful not to dislodge any stitches as he did so. He ignored the mess he had made out of his room and sped back to S.T.A.R. Labs.

“Okay, how do you want to do this?” Barry asked, throwing himself down into one of the chairs and letting it spin in a full circle before stopping the movement with his feet and then pulling out the needles and yarn.

“Oh, you're working on a project already. I guess...Ummm..lets mark this row somehow. Do you have any yarn scraps in that huge bag?”

After a quick search Barry pulled out a strand of dark green yarn. He couldn't help but smile when he remembered what he had used the yarn for, a cabled scarf for Joe last Christmas. 

Barry slipped the little bit of yarn through the last stitch on his needle and tied a loose knot.

“Okay, the current record holder for fastest knitter alive is named Hazel Tindall and she can knit two hundred and sixty two stitches in three minutes. I've got a stop watch here, let's see what you can do. Ready?” Barry grabbed his other needle, made sure his yarn would pull out nicely, without tangling or snagging on anything and then nodded.

“Go!” Cisco yelled, starting the stopwatch. Barely ten seconds had passed in which Barry's hands flew over the stitches, the needles a blur, before Barry jumped out of the chair with a startled gasp, flung his yarn to the ground and stomped on it several times to put out the flames that had sprung up. 

Cisco stared at the smoldering remains of the scarf and needles and snorted.

“Oh my word I can't believe I didn't think of that! I had to make you a freaking flame retardant suit that you could run in without doing that and I didn't think about your wooden needles!” He broke down into snickers that turned into full on laughter the moment that Barry joined in.

“Ugh,” Barry moaned once they had stopped laughing and his gaze flicked to the the now charred yarn, “I really really liked that yarn. It was merino and it was not on sale when I got it. Also, those were my favorite needles.” 

“Dude, that really sucks.” Cisco said, also eyeing the mess on the floor. Barry quickly scooped up the mess and tossed it into the trash.

“I'm going to grab my aluminum needles. Wait, that's probably not a good idea either. I'd probably just heat the metal with the friction and then they'd burn my hands or they'd warp and I'd be left with a ruined scarf again.” Barry sighed and then shrugged.

“Well, it was an interesting theory, but I guess I'll just have to stick to knitting slowly.” Barry scrubbed a hand over his hair and kicked the ground lightly. “I'm going to see if the yarn store is still carrying that merino yarn in that shade, and maybe another pair of bamboo needles. I had honestly forgotten about Iris' scarf and now I really want to do it. So, thanks Cisco for renewing my desire to knit things. I'll see you later.” Barry said before turning and running out of the cortex before Cisco could say anything.

Cisco stared at the bundle of yarn in his lap, his brain focused on how it could be possible for Barry to knit at top speed, without ruining his needles.

 

*

 

The next day Barry walked into the cortex to find Cisco practically bouncing up and down in his seat with barely contained excitement.

“Okay, I made you some new needles! And I got you some cheap acrylic yarn so if this catches fire, it's not such a big deal. The needles are made out of titanium, they're not going to be as nice and light as your bamboo ones, but titanium has a higher melting point then aluminum, so I thought we should try this again.”

“You..made me knitting needles?” Barry asked, a little incredulously. He smiled when Cisco handed the pair of metal needles over, rambling about how for the sake of science they had to figure out how to get this to work.

“Okay, you want to try it again?” Cisco asked, pulling up the stopwatch app on his phone. 

 

*

 

Caitlin walked into the main labs, running a hand through her hair and freezing at the sight of her two friends hunched over the console. 

“Um, what are you two doing?” She asked moving closer so she could see what was going on. Barry had a pair of knitting needles in his hands and some yarn that was smoking slightly, while Cisco was holding his phone and a fire extinguisher.

“Trying to beat a world record?” Cisco said, grinning widely and shoving the phone in her face. “Three hundred, eighty-nine stitches in one minute!”

“As someone who neither knits or crochets, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that's a good thing?” Caitlin said with a shrug.

“Good thing? Its a fantastic thing! Barry completely and utterly destroyed the previous record!” Cisco said beaming brightly and waving the stopwatch around.

“Thanks for the needles Cisco. Do you think you could make a few more pairs?” Barry asked, fiddling with the pair in his hands. 

“Yeah, sure, what sizes do you want?” Caitlin smiled at her friends and went to go and check on the status of one of her experiments while Barry and Cisco chattered on about needle sizes and how to get the weight down as well as ways to help with the friction on the yarn.

In the following weeks Barry found himself knitting at every opportunity, even if he only had a few seconds to spare, using his speed he was able to get a few rows done.

Cisco had wondered if he could knit a hat within seconds but Barry found that a basic hat took him around fifteen minutes to complete, a simple scarf took about half an hour and a pair of socks took just a couple hours where before he'd have been lucky if he finished one sock in a week. He started scoping around for a Christmas sweater pattern for himself that he could hopefully knit before the holiday arrived. He'd already finished a beautiful cabled scarf, hat and mitten set for Iris, hats and scarves for Caitlin, Cisco, H.R., Wally and his dad which he decided to mail because Henry had already said that he wouldn't be able to make it for Christmas but he'd definitely be there for New Year's Eve.

When Christmas rolled around, Barry had finished his sweater just in time. A warm cardigan with a snowflake and reindeer pattern that had been knit in fair isle and had taken the full week to knit because he kept having to stop and untangle the yarn as well as check the pattern every second stitch. 

Joe had laughed every time he came into the room and saw Barry swearing at the tangled yarn, one time threatening to take his needles away if he couldn't calm down. 

Once dinner was eaten, the dishes were cleared away, leftovers (the very few that they did have due to two speedster metabolisms) divvied up into containers and everyone had some eggnog in hand they all gathered in the living room to exchange presents.

H.R. Presented everyone with their own copies of a novel he had written on his own earth, Caitlin and Iris exchanged necklaces and earrings, and Joe gave Barry a gift card to the local yarn shop and Iris a gift card to CC Jitters, the forensic scientist almost fell off his chair he was laughing so hard after he opened the gift from Iris and found another gift card to the yarn store.

“I guess you're both enjoying me knitting again?” He asked. Iris and Joe both shrugged, unapologetic at the thought of future knit wear. “Well, I guess you're in luck.” Barry said handing his presents out to everyone.

“Aw, thanks Barry.” Iris said, pulling her new mittens on and jamming the hat down over her hair, she leaned over to press a kiss against his cheek before pulling back and wrapping the scarf around her throat, sighing softly at the feeling of cloud soft yarn.

“Dude, way to steal my thunder!” Cisco groaned as he passed his gifts around. Everyone laughed as they pulled out a crocheted hat and scarf set and Caitlin sighed happily as she pulled her new lace shawl over her shoulders.

“Thank you Cisco, it's lovely.” She whispered, running her fingers over the fringe.

“Uh, no problem. Oh, hey it actually matches the hat that Barry knit you. Did you do that on purpose Barry?” Barry nodded, causing the giant pom pom that was on his new hat to wiggle. It had honestly been a bit of a pain in the butt to find the yarn that matched that icy blue color and Barry had actually resorted to sneaking the yarn wrapper out of Cisco's yarn tote in order to find the same color.

“Thanks for the hat's and scarves you two.” Iris said giving Barry another kiss.

“Merry Christmas everybody.” She added.

“Merry Christmas.” Everyone echoed.

 

*

 

In the following years, knit and crocheted gifts often made an appearance around holidays and birthdays. 

One of Barry's favorite things that Cisco ever crocheted for him was an amigurumi of him as the Flash. After he received that gift he asked Cisco to help him learn how to crochet and Cisco asked Barry to teach him to knit.

Cisco became fascinated with knit lace and Barry loved to make dozens of different amigurumi and give them to kids at the local hospital. When Cisco learned about where all his little crocheted animals were going he quickly joined in. They also made hats for cancer patients and soldiers. 

One winter Iris wandered by, their duvet that was supposed to be on the bed wrapped around her shoulders and a mug of cocoa in hand. After that Barry knit and crocheted almost a dozen different blankets and draped them over the couches and armchairs and on on their first year wedding anniversary, Barry presented Iris with the first of many sweaters.


End file.
